Hero Tales

Page: 23

"Then the heralds led my fair sister to the shore, and chained her to
the rock, there to wait for the coming of the monster. But Hercules
stood near her, fearless in his strength. Soon the waves began to
rise; the waters were disturbed, and the beast, with hoarse bellowings,
lifted his head above the breakers, and rushed forward to seize his
prey. Then the hero sprang to meet him. With blow upon blow from his
mighty club, he felled the monster; the waters of the sea were reddened
with blood; Hesione was saved, and Troy was freed from the dreadful
curse.

"'Behold thy daughter!' said Hercules, leading her gently back to the
city, and giving her to her father. 'I have saved her from the jaws of
death, and delivered your country from the dread scourge. Give me now
my hire.'

"Shame fills my heart as I tell this story, for thanklessness was the
bane of my father's life. Ungrateful to the hero who had risked so
much and done so much that our homes and our country might be saved
from ruin, he turned coldly away from Hercules; then he shut the great
gates in his face, and barred him out of the city, and taunted him from
the walls, saying, 'I owe thee no hire! Begone from our coasts, ere I
scourge thee hence!'

"Full of wrath, the hero turned away. 'I go, but I will come again,'
he said.

"Then peace and plenty blessed once more the city of Troy, and men
forgot the perils from which they had been delivered. But ere long,
great Hercules returned, as he had promised; and with him came a fleet
of white-sailed ships and many warriors. Neither gates nor strong
walls could stand against him. Into the city he marched, and straight
to my father's palace. All fled before him, and the strongest warriors
quailed beneath his glance. Here, in this very court, he slew my
father and my brothers with his terrible arrows. I myself would have
fallen before his wrath, had not my sister, fair Hesione, pleaded for
my life.

"'I spare his life,' said Hercules, in answer to her prayers, 'for he
is but a lad. Yet he must be my slave until you have paid a price for
him, and thus redeemed him.'

"Then Hesione took the golden veil from her head, and gave it to the
hero as my purchase price. And thenceforward I was called Priam, or
the purchased; for the name which my mother gave me was Podarkes, or
the fleet-footed.

"After this Hercules and his heroes went on board their ships and
sailed back across the sea, leaving me alone in my father's halls. For
they took fair Hesione with them, and carried her to Salamis, to be the
wife of Telamon, the father of mighty Ajax. There, through these long
years she has lived in sorrow, far removed from home and friends and
the scenes of her happy childhood. And now that the heroTelamon, to
whom she was wedded, lives no longer, I ween that her life is indeed a
cheerless one."